If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hope ubuntu 10.04 will use it just think : out of the box 3d support!!! without any firmware crap!!! go fedora. waiting for ubuntu 10.10 (day dreaming). just 2 monts ago i wanted to buy Ati , but, in the way nouveau its going, go nvidia

Just a little about the rate that nouveau is suddenly progressing.... need to keep in mind that this is based on reverse engineering. You start off knowing NOTHING, and then you work and work and work and work getting little bits and pieces and understanding just enough to make it do *something* -- sortof, and then *finally* you have enough information to actually WORK WITH ---- that is when it explodes (like we're seeing now).

And on top of that, there are a few things happening lately that increase the importance of getting the out-of-the-box 3D stuff working.... in particular, GNOME SHELL, which is supposed to up and infect everyone starting with Gnome 2.32 -- this depends on working 3D out of the box. RH knows that, so they are pushing the living hell out of 3D driver developers. It is also an ugly thing that they can build a really slick startup screen, like plymouth, and yet the majority of their users have to look at the ugly text mode with no KMS just because they need to use the proprietary blob drivers for their 3D stuff. Plymouth and KMS work great on nvidia hardware running nouveau. It all dies in a messy ball of fire when you throw their blob into the mix.

Note: Regardless of the state of nouveau, I'll stick with AMD hardware. I don't like dishing out money to a company that doesn't give a rat's ass about me. I will only ever consider nvidia again if they decide to start a SERIOUS open source effort. Forcing their customers to reverse engineer their drivers/hardware the HARD way is no kind of niceness.

Hope ubuntu 10.04 will use it just think : out of the box 3d support!!! without any firmware crap!!! go fedora. waiting for ubuntu 10.10 (day dreaming). just 2 monts ago i wanted to buy Ati , but, in the way nouveau its going, go nvidia

I applaud the efforts of nouveau... but considering ATI is releasing documentation on their hardware making it much easier to write drivers, why not support them?

I applaud the efforts of nouveau... but considering ATI is releasing documentation on their hardware making it much easier to write drivers, why not support them?

As a Linux user looking at graphics cards the situation is this:

ATI/AMD
Binary Blob: Terrible, infrequently updated.
Open Source: Two different drivers for different models of cards, works mostly if the stars are aligned correctly.

NVIDIA
Binary Blob: Best linux graphics driver, has features and stability.
Open Source: One driver for all but oldest cards. 2D support done, 3D on its way. Moving quickly.

I have an nvidia card and have been using nouveau for a few months, my desktop (not accelerated) works great and is stable. The gallium driver will play some games and does allow xcompmgr to work well.

Offical documentation or not nvidia is the way to go. ATI/AMD presumably have all the documentation ever produced and the guys who invented the chips/cards and even their own driver is worthless.

Sorry to sound like a fan boy, I am not, but I cannot see myself getting an ATI card in the near future.